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Re: Is She Ready?

. My son was all sorts of stuff without teeth! He had Indian food at 6.5 months lol. I think it is important to trust your baby and let her figure things out. Rarely will they choke. Gagging and choking are two completely different things. My son would use hes tongue to press things against his mouth and "chew" them. It was really quite fascinating to watch. Some ideas- pears cut up in sticks, or cut up banana, cheerios, roasted sweet potato wedges. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with her skills!

Re: Is She Ready?

Haven't had a whole lot of time away from my baby; she is napping so I have an opportunity. Since I'm so new at motherhood, please excuse me; my daughter has been having maybe two meals a day along with breastmilk per her pediatrician's advice. I just assumed that the only food she could eat is the babyfood offered at the market, beechnut, gerber.........you know jar food. I guess I didn't realize I could cook carrots myself and mash them for her. Should I do that instead of jarred babyfood?

I appreciate the advice from the more seasoned mothers out there. Thanks!

Re: Is She Ready?

What I do about questions like this, is ask myself what did mommies do 150-200 years ago, before baby food companies existed? They probably roasted, steamed, boiled, etc food, it was hard to make food at all-no microwaves, no electric ovens, no indoor plumbing. So baby probably ate the foods in the meal that were baby appropriate-maybe a boiled/steamed carrot, maybe a bit of rice, or oatmeal etc.

Look up baby led weaning and you can read a lot about what modern day mommies do, with out giving gerber all their money. lol

Also if you think about it....wouldn't you get pretty bored of a all canned food diet? Would you rather all your meals come from a can, or would you rather have home cooked meals every day?Basically the same for baby.

Re: Is She Ready?

Based on my limited knowledge on the history of breastfeeding, formula feeding and commercial baby food, my OPINION is that baby food is not necessary on most cases.

Why? I am glad you asked . When breastfeeding was on a decline and formula was relatively new the baby formula recipes were not as complete as they are now. Babies were not thriving well on formula alone so other foods were introduced really early. The only way to feed a 3-4mo baby was with a super fine puree. Modern formula is a more complete food source, so now most babies don't need solid food until they are 6+ months old and at that age they can likely do a lot of the feeding themselves. There are always some exceptions, of course.

Re: Is She Ready?

Thanks to all of you and especially the last two posters. And I sort of chuckled at what the pp said about giving money to Gerber........my sister sure did a lot of that and we usually threw out most of the jars of food! So again much appreciation.

Re: Is She Ready?

Katia: I completed missed your post!!! Those are some great ideas..............what should I avoid fruit wise? Obviously, I understand that such things as apples in small chunks pose a choking hazard but what about blueberries? I appreciate all of your help again............I've gone for almost eight months with another forum looking for help when you guys were right here. Thanks again.

Re: Is She Ready?

We started with baked sweet potato, raw avocado, raw banana, steamed pears, apples.... We stuck with whole foods and avoided processed foods because their tummies are so tiny we wanted every bite to count, ya know? By about 9-10 months, he was eating what we were eating (unless we were eating something he couldn't, then he got a snack medley consisting of things like grated cheese, chopped fruit, baked veggies, whole grain crackers, shredded chicken, etc). We did find that he couldn't tolerate tomatoes or oranges until over a year so those were off limits for him. We also stayed away from high allergen foods until after a year although new research suggests that it isn't necessary.

~Jenn~

mother of 2 boys!08/14/98~~03/20/08Birth: 7lbs 12oz, 1 year: 22lbs 11oz until he self-weaned 4 days before his third birthday ... still on occasion ... and happily ************************************************** ************************************************** *****************People need to understand that when they're deciding between breastmilk and formula, they're not deciding between Coke and Pepsi.... They're choosing between a live, pure substance and a dead substance made with the cheapest oils available. ~Chele Marmet